Welcome to Windows 7 Forums. Our forum is dedicated to helping you find support and solutions for any problems regarding your Windows 7 PC be it Dell, HP, Acer, Asus or a custom build. We also provide an extensive Windows 7 tutorial section that covers a wide range of tips and tricks.

I have a Dell XPS L501x laptop. A test showed that the hard drive was going to fail, so I had Dell replace it (it's under warranty until December). I installed Windows 7 on the new HDD and I've had problems basically since the beginning. What happens is my programs will hang, with the (Not Responding) message on the top of the window. This will last for anywhere between 10 seconds to a couple minutes. I called Dell again about this and was told that the problem was Chromium, my browser. I uninstalled it and the problems persisted with Firefox, so they told me to install Windows again. I did this and I'm having the same problems. I have Chrome installed now. One thing I've noticed is that Flash occasionally crashes, but this is a separate error message so I don't know how related it is. Chrome isn't the only program locking up. Word, notepad, and basically everything else I have open will lock up, but as far as I can remember this only happens when I have my browser open as well.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I've tried to look up solutions but I couldn't find anything that seemed to match my particular problem. I did not have this problem before my new HDD was installed but I can't tell if this is a software or hardware issue. I have 6GB RAM so that shouldn't be an issue.

It's probably the culprit. You say that you uninstalled it and the problem didn't go away? You might have to reinstall Windows again, and this time don't install Chrome and see what happens. It could also be hardware related, but you need to make sure it is without having Chrome installed.

@Mellon- Is there no way to fully uninstall Chrome instead of having to reinstall Windows again? I can do it if necessary but I've done this multiple times in the last couple months and it's frustrating.

@James- No, I can try that. The thing is that the problem is intermittent, so I can go without problems for a good amount of time running programs in normal mode already.

Something else that I thought of that seems important: when the program locks up, it locks up the other programs at the same time. For example, if I try to load a page on Chrome and it freezes, if I try to load another page or go to Word and try to do something that has stopped responding as well. When the page loads everything will start working again at the same time.

@Mellon- Is there no way to fully uninstall Chrome instead of having to reinstall Windows again? I can do it if necessary but I've done this multiple times in the last couple months and it's frustrating.

You said that you uninstalled Chrome and the problem didn't go away, so either something else is wrong, or Chrome didn't fully uninstall and is still giving you grief. Most programs don't uninstall cleanly. They leave all sorts of junk behind which can still cause problems.

If it were me, I would reinstall Windows (I know, I know...) and reinstall everything EXCEPT Chrome. Run with Firefox for a while until you are certain that you don't have another problem somewhere else. Then you can load Chrome, and if it locks up on you, you'll at least know that it was Chrome, and you can take troubleshooting steps on the Google boards to try to fix the problem. If it isn't, then we can try other options to fix the problem.

Quote:

Something else that I thought of that seems important: when the program locks up, it locks up the other programs at the same time. For example, if I try to load a page on Chrome and it freezes, if I try to load another page or go to Word and try to do something that has stopped responding as well. When the page loads everything will start working again at the same time.

It happened with Firefox before I reinstalled Windows the most recent time, but that could just be due to remnants of Chrome screwing things up. Thanks for the help so far, I'll probably reinstall Windows tonight if I have time.

It happened with Firefox before I reinstalled Windows the most recent time, but that could just be due to remnants of Chrome screwing things up. Thanks for the help so far, I'll probably reinstall Windows tonight if I have time.

Good luck, and remember to test it for a while before reinstalling Chrome.

I haven't had the time to reinstall Windows yet, but in the meantime I think I may have figured it out. Since I switched my power option from power saver to balanced I haven't had this problem. I can't remember if power saver was on the every time I've had this problem but if it was it could just be that my computer wasn't able to handle the processes while not going at full capacity. Fingers crossed that it's this simple but so far it's looking good.

Programs constantly not responding, possibly Chrome related

All programs not responding - PC constantly restarts and FreezesHey everyone! I am new to the forum and needed some help
Recently on my computer all my programs have been "Not Responding" every 5 - 10 minutes and it gets very annoying.
My computer also randomly freezes and also restarts all on its own.
-----
I tried many anti virus/malware etc......

Performance & Maintenance

Random BSOD, possibly related to new SSD? (Win 7 Pro OEM)Hello, excellent forums people :)
I'm helping a friend diagnose this laptop. Here are the model numbers and small history of it, which I feel may help point in the correct direction for a diagnosis:
Model is a Toshiba Satellite C870.
This laptop was supposed to come with...

BSOD Help and Support

Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit Freezing Constantly, Possibly Due to Win UpdateMy Desktop PC has been freezing constantly for the past few days. I have performed System restore back to 12/26/10 and the PC seems to work fine until after I download and install all of the latest windows updates, then it begins to freeze constantly and I have to keep shutting it down and turning...

BSOD Help and Support

Partition Issues - Possibly MBR relatedHello everyone. It's a long story and I'll try to explain my problem in detail. So, please bear with me if it's long. :)
First of all, the OS I was using was Windows 7 ultimate, 64 bit.
The Background
I had four partitions on my 1TB hard drive and I wanted another one to install Ubuntu....

General Discussion

Random BSOD - possibly related to SSDHi,
I'm receiving a random BSOD in Windows 7. It has occurred twice this morning already. I believe it may be related to the SSD (OCZ Vertex 2) because on one occasion the SSD was not detected upon the first reboot, but it was detected on the second reboot.
I have attached the contents of my...